Victoria Cilliers

Victoria Cilliers is a skydiver who survived a murder attempt on her in 2015 when both her main and reserve parachutes were interfered with.

Early life and marriage
Victoria lives in Wiltshire, England, and is a physiotherapist for the Ministry of Defence.

Victoria's ex-husband Emile Cilliers was born in South Africa in 1980 and moved to the UK in the early 2000s. He has two children from a previous marriage. He met Victoria in 2009, and they have two children. Their relationship deteriorated before his 2015 attempt on her life.

She became a successful parachutist and instructor, with 2,654 jumps.

Murder attempt
During a parachute jump on Easter Sunday 2015, both her standard and reserve parachutes failed to open. She fell 4,000ft to the ground. She survived the fall despite life-threatening injuries because she landed on a soft, newly ploughed field. It was the second attempt on her life in less than a week

Emile Cilliers was convicted of her attempted murder in May 2018 after a previous trial failed to reach a verdict. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 18 years. He was also convicted of tampering with a gas valve at their home.

Media

 * I Survived is an autobiographical memoir published by Pan Macmillan
 * The Parachute Murder Plot is a 2018 documentary film by All3Media about the murder attempt, with Fiona Bruce
 * The Fall: Skydive Murder Plot is a 2024 Channel 4 television documentary about the murder attempt (originally commissioned as The Woman Who Fell To Earth )